Donald Trump's impeachment 2.0: the Pizzagate Uprising

[Blue1980]

You know the minds of 50 odd million people?

Why else would they believe it? Why would they believe something with no evidence? A large proportion of the American population has brought into the cult of Trump, which is supposedly anti politicians, anti Washington etc.

I mean I read 10 years ago over 40% of Americans think Jesus will return to earth before 2050, does that mean we need to address their concerns too?

Some people are just idiots. America is susceptible to worshipping individuals as the whole Trump movement has shown.

 

[Marcel Proust]

Ahh, the good old Business Plot when DuPont, Hearts, Prescott Bush and a bunch of other bankers and capitalists tried to recruit an army to overthrow Roosevelt because they thought he was a Socialist and was goin to steal their money.

They came undone because the General they tried to recruit to lead the army (Smedley Butler, dual Medal of Honour winner) dobbed them in to Congress. Then Roosevelt came to an agreement with them. They could either be hung for sedition or shut up for the rest of his Presidency.

They got off very, very lightly.

Fair effort by smedley 'war is a racket' butler to win the MOH twice

One of 19 people to do so

 

[Sweet Jesus]

I'm happy with my psychological thanks.

Tldr

Your fear of admitting you were conned prevents you from acknowledging reality.

Like a pensioner who sends money to a Nigerian prince who contacted them via email, but then lies about it when their family asks them.

You know the minds of 50 odd million people?

It's possible to draw conclusions about people who believe the election was "stolen", without evidence, simply because Trump said so.

Trump was planting the baseless claim of fraud before the 2016 election as well, for precisely this purpose. This is his go-to lie and you lap it up. If he lost, it must have been because someone cheated! Think how gullible or motivated you have to be to parrot that claim.

Why is it so hard to believe he lost a free and fair election? You embrace the lie because the truth is unpalatable.

 

[Sweet Jesus]

Whatever FK thinks this mischievous new right is, Trump and the republicans certainly ain’t it.@FireK

FireKrakouer aka Pretzel doesn't know what it means either.

As far as I can tell, for Pretzel it means liking Christmas but not necessarily being conservative (because he doesn't know what that means either), claiming to defend free speech except when he doesn't like it, and liking memes. He is literally this dumb.

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Sarah Palin are his heroes.

 

[Sweet Jesus]

Great post, unfortunately I see parallels in relatives of mine who have gone down the Trump fandom path (only a couple).

One of them seems just determined to have an opposing view of everything, hates republicans but likes Trump, would of wanted Bernie to win, but didn’t want Biden to, so wanted Trump instead. Claims proud boys aren’t racists yada yada yada.

In real terms I think their someone who’s a racist who is trying to do mental gymnastics to make out they aren’t.

A lot of people just see the effect Trump has on people and they like it. It's a form of revenge on people who made them feel bad about their views.

They can't let that go so they double down.

It reminds me of old people who get scammed out of money online. One of the difficulties confronting family members is when the victim of the scam cannot bring themselves to believe they were scammed, so they deny it and double down. The psychology of the dead-end Trump fan is similar to that. Imagine the psychological discomfort they'd have to endure if they admitted they were conned and everyone who told them they were crazy was vindicated.

The other is someone never invested in politics before, and lockdown happened, suddenly Dan Andrews is hated, Trump is great, Biden is a pedo, everyone overreacting to covid, must be a mass cover up etc and I’m like “wtf”, then I did a bit of research to what was going on, and how covid had been a lightning rod for a wide disparate bunch of conspiracy views, and people with too much time on their hands. (And many most wouldn’t even know what qanon is, even if many of the theories originate there)

The 2nd one id put in that category of always feeling left out previously re political debate suddenly thought they had discovered the truth, and everyone else was just believing what the government told them.

Low information, low public trust. Ripe for conspiracy thinking, which has its own psychological appeal.

The term for it is "epistemic closure", where a belief system incorporates some principle that makes it impervious to external evidence that might disprove it. You see it in religions, where any evidence disproving the belief system is by default the work of the devil. The information is a temptation that would corrupt faith.

Similarly any media that debunks Trump's lies and points out his abuses is by default "fake news". That's how epistemic closure works, particularly in cults.

 

[Sweet Jesus]

Balls In and FireKrakouer consider this thought experiment.

Let's say for argument's sake the 2020 election was free and fair. Let's say the result was legitimate and Biden was the legitimate winner.

Assuming that was the case, would you still defend Trump's conduct after the result was declared? Assuming the 2020 election was free and fair and Biden was the legitimate winner, would you still defend Trump seeking to overturn the result/delay certification?

 

[Blue1980]

Your fear of admitting you were conned prevents you from acknowledging reality.

Like a pensioner who sends money to a Nigerian prince who contacted them via email, but then lies about it when their family asks them.

It's possible to draw conclusions about people who believe the election was "stolen", without evidence, simply because Trump said so.

Trump was planting the baseless claim of fraud before the 2016 election as well, for precisely this purpose. This is his go-to lie and you lap it up. If he lost, it must have been because someone cheated! Think how gullible or motivated you have to be to parrot that claim.

Why is it so hard to believe he lost a free and fair election? You embrace the lie because the truth is unpalatable.

He was using rigged stolen voting conspiracies in Republican primaries when he lost a state to Cruz, it’s just what he does, the Trump “brand” is based on him never losing.

If he runs again in 2024 and loses I think you will see the game play out again but a lesser amount of morons taking the bait. He and the republicans will try the mother of all voter suppression tactics and any other random dirty trick they can think of.

Thing is under trump, 2016 is their only success. Lost house in 2018, and eventually senate in 2021. The idea that Trump is some panacea for the republicans is very misguided.

It seems to be just delaying an inevitable switch to the centre right which they will need to make sooner or later.

As currently they are relying on claiming the dems are Satan worshipping pedos to rally the base to vote out of terrified fear, and stopping blacks/minorities from voting.

 

[The Passenger]

America is susceptible to worshipping individuals as the whole Trump movement has shown.

The US of A has always had a thing for the cult of personality. Whether it be Hollywood stars like John Wayne or Brad Pitt, Sex symbols (which had a lot of crossover with Hollywood) like Marilyn Monroe, sportsman (Ali, Jordan amongst a massive list), talk show hosts (Ellen, Oprah) or even just famous being a celebrity (Paris Hilton, the Kardashians etc). Even Trump himself had quite the following long before he was even talked about running for office.

We've all seen people of varying levels of fame out and about in Australia in a range of situations and for the most part they don't get bothered. In fact I've never seen it ever go beyond a few people asking for an autograph (it's a selfie these days). It's only the absolute apex of Australian celebrities (Shane Warne level) that need to lead the private life US celebrities do.

I don't think most Australian's could ever really understand the psyche that drives it.

Interestingly, when big American celebrities we visit our shores they don't get exactly get peace and quiet do they? So maybe the American cult of personality is an exported product as well as domestically consumed.

 

[FireKrakouer]

Balls In and FireKrakouer consider this thought experiment.

Let's say for argument's sake the 2020 election was free and fair. Let's say the result was legitimate and Biden was the legitimate winner.

Assuming that was the case, would you still defend Trump's conduct after the result was declared? Assuming the 2020 election was free and fair and Biden was the legitimate winner, would you still defend Trump seeking to overturn the result/delay certification?

Not reading.

 

[Sweet Jesus]

He was using rigged stolen voting conspiracies in Republican primaries when he lost a state to Cruz, it’s just what he does, the Trump “brand” is based on him never losing.

And it also means someone cheated if he lost, which is a licence to do as he did in the past two months.

It's a lie the dead-enders have to embrace.

If he runs again in 2024 and loses I think you will see the game play out again but a lesser amount of morons taking the bait. He and the republicans will try the mother of all voter suppression tactics and any other random dirty trick they can think of.

Thing is under trump, 2016 is their only success. Lost house in 2018, and eventually senate in 2021. The idea that Trump is some panacea for the republicans is very misguided.

It seems to be just delaying an inevitable switch to the centre right which they will need to make sooner or later.

As currently they are relying on claiming the dems are Satan worshipping pedos to rally the base to vote out of terrified fear, and stopping blacks/minorities from voting.

The next step is whether Trump involves himself in 2022 Senate primaries. Will he intervene to try to make sure all the Republican candidates are wingnuts like Marjorie Taylor Greene?

McConnell on the other hand would prefer candidates deemed more traditionally electable.

For example, Richard Burr's seat for example in South Carolina. He voted to convict Trump last week but plans to retire. There's now talk of Lara Trump contesting that primary. You'd think the Republicans would still hang onto both seats in North Carolina, but if Trump starts making sure his acolytes win primaries, who knows?

Is Rubio safe in Florida? What if Ivanka wants to run?

This could be the struggle within the GOP for the next few years at least. Trump candidates v establishment candidates in primaries. Too early to predict who prevails but it could make some relatively safe Republican seats more competitive.

 

[Sweet Jesus]

Not reading.

Hypothetically, if the 2020 was free and fair, would you still defend Trump's conduct after the result was declared? Hypothetically, if the 2020 election wasn't "stolen" and Biden was the legitimate winner, would you still defend Trump seeking to overturn the result/delay certification?

 

[Saint]

And it also means someone cheated if he lost, which is a licence to do as he did in the past two months.

It's a lie the dead-enders have to embrace.

The next step is whether Trump involves himself in 2022 Senate primaries. Will he intervene to try to make sure all the Republican candidates are wingnuts like Marjorie Taylor Greene?

McConnell on the other hand would prefer candidates deemed more traditionally electable.

For example, Richard Burr's seat for example in South Carolina. He voted to convict Trump last week but plans to retire. There's now talk of Lara Trump contesting that primary. You'd think the Republicans would still hang onto both seats in North Carolina, but if Trump starts making sure his acolytes win primaries, who knows?

Is Rubio safe in Florida? What if Ivanka wants to run?

This could be the struggle within the GOP for the next few years at least. Trump candidates v establishment candidates in primaries. Too early to predict who prevails but it could make some relatively safe Republican seats more competitive.

That's exactly what's going to happen. Sensible GOP candidates are going to lose primaries and the Senate and GOP is going to end up stacked with crazy Trumpists including family members. What exactly has Lara Trump done except for marrying the stupidest Trump?!

In the meantime, if the Dems can win some Governors' races in states like Arizona and Georgia they can undo the voter restriction laws enough to make some of those states safer Dem states.

Trump will be taking over the GOP while the Dems will be taking over the country.

Rush Limbaugh's death couldn't have come sooner. Watch Trump and his acolytes tack on to his legacy. But there will never be another Rush, media landscape is too splintered.

 

[bourbons]

I'm happy with my psychological thanks.

Thats unfortunate.

 

[Royces Hart]

So how many white supremacists have a fridge like this?

View attachment 1059215

Not surprised to see tin foil on your shopping list.

 

[yebiga]

Greenwald is gay, jewish, progressive, worked for the Guardian, the Intercept. A once icon of the progressive left.
What happened? This can't be!

The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot

Insisting on factual accuracy does not make one an apologist for the protesters. False reporting is never justified, especially to inflate threat and fear levels.

greenwald.substack.com

In other news, Hunter Biden reveals his penile enlargement technique. Whilst, Joe nears completing his racial transition.

 

[Balls In]

Greenwald is gay, jewish, progressive, worked for the Guardian, the Intercept. A once icon of the progressive left.
What happened? This can't be!

The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot

Insisting on factual accuracy does not make one an apologist for the protesters. False reporting is never justified, especially to inflate threat and fear levels.

greenwald.substack.com

In other news, Hunter Biden reveals his penile enlargement technique. Whilst, Joe nears completing his racial transition.

No doubt this left wing progressive gay bloke will be ex-communicated after this article for daring to point out the glaringly obvious.

CNN and NBC even paid a BLM member $30,000 for his footage of that veteran being shot...

CNN, NBC each paid $35K for Utahn’s Capitol riot video, court docs say - Deseret News

 

[Satan]

No doubt this left wing progressive gay bloke will be ex-communicated after this article for daring to point out the glaringly obvious.

CNN and NBC even paid a BLM member $30,000 for his footage of that veteran being shot...

CNN, NBC each paid $35K for Utahn’s Capitol riot video, court docs say - Deseret News

In addition, Australian Broadcasting Corp. paid Sullivan $2,375 for his video.

 

[Blue1980]

The US of A has always had a thing for the cult of personality. Whether it be Hollywood stars like John Wayne or Brad Pitt, Sex symbols (which had a lot of crossover with Hollywood) like Marilyn Monroe, sportsman (Ali, Jordan amongst a massive list), talk show hosts (Ellen, Oprah) or even just famous being a celebrity (Paris Hilton, the Kardashians etc). Even Trump himself had quite the following long before he was even talked about running for office.

We've all seen people of varying levels of fame out and about in Australia in a range of situations and for the most part they don't get bothered. In fact I've never seen it ever go beyond a few people asking for an autograph (it's a selfie these days). It's only the absolute apex of Australian celebrities (Shane Warne level) that need to lead the private life US celebrities do.

I don't think most Australian's could ever really understand the psyche that drives it.

Interestingly, when big American celebrities we visit our shores they don't get exactly get peace and quiet do they? So maybe the American cult of personality is an exported product as well as domestically consumed.

Yes when they visit it’s like that, be different if they lived here I feel.

But yes it is exported to a degree.

 

[Sweet Jesus]

The US of A has always had a thing for the cult of personality. Whether it be Hollywood stars like John Wayne or Brad Pitt, Sex symbols (which had a lot of crossover with Hollywood) like Marilyn Monroe, sportsman (Ali, Jordan amongst a massive list), talk show hosts (Ellen, Oprah) or even just famous being a celebrity (Paris Hilton, the Kardashians etc). Even Trump himself had quite the following long before he was even talked about running for office.

We've all seen people of varying levels of fame out and about in Australia in a range of situations and for the most part they don't get bothered. In fact I've never seen it ever go beyond a few people asking for an autograph (it's a selfie these days). It's only the absolute apex of Australian celebrities (Shane Warne level) that need to lead the private life US celebrities do.

I don't think most Australian's could ever really understand the psyche that drives it.

Interestingly, when big American celebrities we visit our shores they don't get exactly get peace and quiet do they? So maybe the American cult of personality is an exported product as well as domestically consumed.

That's all true but there have been celebrity politicians elsewhere before Trump.

Certainly Trump's celebrity status helped him. But I think the more uniquely American aspect of it is the magical thinking and the willingness to indulge delusions - if you believe hard enough, that's the point, rather than what the facts indicate. Trump encapsulates this.

 

[Sweet Jesus]

Greenwald is gay, jewish, progressive, worked for the Guardian, the Intercept. A once icon of the progressive left.
What happened? This can't be!

The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot

Insisting on factual accuracy does not make one an apologist for the protesters. False reporting is never justified, especially to inflate threat and fear levels.

greenwald.substack.com

In other news, Hunter Biden reveals his penile enlargement technique. Whilst, Joe nears completing his racial transition.

Greenwald has for a long time sat uncomfortably within any neat classification. He's an eccentric character, although that's not to discredit him. But I wouldn't be holding him up as having been "representative" of leftwing politics just because he's gay and Jewish etc.

 

[yebiga]

Greenwald has for a long time sat uncomfortably within any neat classification. He's an eccentric character, although that's not to discredit him. But I wouldn't be holding him up as having been "representative" of leftwing politics just because he's gay and Jewish etc.

I’m curious, who would you consider to be representative of left wing policies?

 

[Sweet Jesus]

I’m curious, who would you consider to be representative of left wing policies?

You'd have to be more specific. The left in which country? Centre-left? Further left? Clearly there are gradations and distinctions.

As for Greenwald, he's done some fine work but he has a very particular perspective that isn't necessarily embraced broadly by "the left".

 

[kranky al]

Hypothetically, if the 2020 was free and fair, would you still defend Trump's conduct after the result was declared? Hypothetically, if the 2020 election wasn't "stolen" and Biden was the legitimate winner, would you still defend Trump seeking to overturn the result/delay certification?

Interestingly enough fk asked a hypothetical a few days back expecting the left side of politics to struggle to answer

I think he was a bit perplexed when none of us struggled to answer.

when your moral code is fixed an answer is reflexive.